Renderings released Sunday show the future food bank at Heartland’s headquarters at 84th Avenue and L Street in Omaha. Work on clearing the site and construction is expected to begin this summer, with the move in 2026. (Courtesy of HDR and Project Advocates)
OMAHA — Food Bank for the Heartland is taking extra measures, including leasing a refrigerated trailer to store food in its parking lot, as demand for food assistance increases across the 93-county area it serves.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new $37 million headquarters project was held Sunday. (Cindy Gonzalez / Nebraska Examiner)
Volunteers and semitrailer truck drivers visiting the Omaha-based nonprofit often clog up traffic on the road leading to its current headquarters.
Meanwhile, rising food costs and the end of many pandemic-era government assistance programs have created “disruption” the food bank has never seen in its 42-year history, officials said.
To meet the growing need, the food bank on Sunday unveiled $37 million plans to build a new office and warehouse complex on a larger, 12-acre site at the northeast corner of 84th and L streets in Omaha.
An aerial view of the future Food Bank of the Heartland facility at the northeast corner of 84th Avenue and L Street in Omaha. (Courtesy of HDR and Project Advocates)
40% larger
Representatives, along with Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, unveiled renderings and other details of the 105,000-square-foot facility, which is about 40 percent larger than the current facility.
The new base, which has housed a car dealership for more than half a century, will nearly double its parking spaces to about 170 new cars.
Brian Burks, CEO and president of Food Bank for the Heartland. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)
“Our project will transform 84th and L Street,” said CEO and President Brian Burks, “with its focus on healthy foods, it will transform the way we do business and serve the community.”
Planning began in 2020, Burks said, but the nonprofit’s board of directors opted to hold off on announcing the building and relocation until it had secured 60% of the $27 million it hopes to raise in charitable donations. About $10 million will come from internal funds and the sale of its existing building at 10525 J St.
The nonprofit continues to solicit community donations for its fundraising campaign.
Demolition and construction work is scheduled to begin this summer, with occupancy scheduled for 2026, according to the project timeline.
Food bank officials say the milestone is due to increased demand for food assistance from Nebraskans.
(Courtesy of Heartland Food Bank)
Scholar CEO Paul Maas said his involvement with the food bank showed him the widespread lack of healthy food.
“For many people, hunger is a hidden issue,” he told several dozen supporters gathered Sunday under a large tent on the future food bank’s grounds, “but it’s happening all around us, every day, every moment. We’ve learned that this is not an urban or rural or suburban issue. Hunger is an issue everywhere.”
26.7 million pounds of food last year
The Food Bank works with 555 network partners to distribute groceries to people in need across 78,000 square miles in 77 counties in Nebraska and 16 counties in western Iowa.
Last year, the network distributed more than 26.7 million pounds of food.
Rendering of the future distribution center for the Food Bank of Omaha’s Heartland Campus. (Courtesy of HDR and Project Advocates)
The group projects it will serve 600,548 households this fiscal year, up from about 572,000 a year ago and about 313,000 five years ago.
Looking at demand from an individual perspective, food banks expect to feed 1.62 million people this year, up from 1.52 million last year and 843,000 in 2019.
Birx highlighted the demand, saying Nebraskans have faced increased hardship since the December 2018 government shutdown.
“The focus on healthy foods will change the way we do business and serve our communities.”
– Brian Burks, CEO and President of Food Bank for the Heartland
Historic floods in March 2019 forced thousands to evacuate, and some are still rebuilding.
As a result of COVID-19, food banks have increased the number of meals they’ve distributed by 89%. People who lost their jobs during the pandemic have dipped into savings and gone into debt.
“Inflation and the lingering effects of the pandemic have made hunger a daily reality across our communities,” the food bank said in a statement about the fundraising campaign. “Rising food prices are forcing many of our neighbors to make impossible choices between the things they need to survive and thrive, including food, medicine, utility bills and paying for child care.”
Pandemic highlights
The new Food Bank for the Heartland will include a volunteer center. A rendering is shown here. (Courtesy of HDR and Project Advocates)
As a highlight of its pandemic response, the department noted that at the time the food bank opened a small, USDA-certified “clean room” to accept and process large donations of nutritious protein.
Representatives said the program has been successful, but construction for the program takes up space at the volunteer center.
The new facility will include a larger clean room for processing proteins.
Other features:
The sprawling corner property was sold to the food bank for $7.1 million, records show.
The land where Food Bank for the Heartland will be built was the site of a car dealership for half a century. (Cindy Gonzalez / Nebraska Examiner)
H&H Chevrolet, which reportedly had been at the location since 1968, relocated last year to a larger area in the Steele Ridge development in Sarpy County.
Burks said the food bank visited multiple locations and considered other options, including renovations, but he said it would be more economical to clear the site at 84th and L streets and build anew.
He said people would be even more impressed when they saw how staff had increased production at the current facility. He said the level of demand had been “unanticipated.”
“It’s been a tough journey,” Burks said, “and to get to this point is a feeling of relief, joy and emotion all rolled into one.”
(Courtesy of Heartland Food Bank)
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The post Nebraska food bank announces $37 million building and relocation plans to meet ‘unexpected’ demand appeared first in Nebraska Examiner.
